3727 –
Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer, affecting 1 out of 6 American men. Current detection and diagnosis methods include blood prostate-specific antigen levels, digital rectal exam, and biopsies. Based on the results, treatment course may include “watchful waiting” or active surveillance, followed by surgery, radiation, chemo- or hormone therapy as necessary. Therapeutic... Read More

3711 –
Controlled drug delivery is crucial for optimal drug effectiveness in many cases (e.g. for parathyroid hormone (PTH)). Drug formulation is often aimed at optimizing drug availability, but new strategies to develop delivery mechanisms that can control drug release profiles are also being explore.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a pulsatile release device... Read More

3565 –
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of the most commonly injured ligaments of the knee, with incidence of ACL injuries estimated to be approximately 200,000 annually in the US. Most of these injuries occur in younger patients, who may later develop osteoarthritis. To date, both allografts and autografts are used for ACL reconstruction, both of which has several shortcomings.... Read More

3663 –
Grafting materials (e.g., autografts, allografts) have been used to repair tissue loss from accidents and diseases. Limited attachment and the risk of pathogen transmission and immune rejection of the materials are however major concerns in grafting procedures. The field of tissue engineering has focused on developing new approaches to develop biological alternatives to harvested tissues... Read More

3561 –
Muscle strains are produced by indirect injury to muscle caused by excessive stretch or tension. The most common strains occur at the myotendinous junction, which is the weakest link within the muscle. Typical findings of muscle strains are seen in injuries of the hamstrings and pectoralis major muscles. In one study, hamstring strains accounted for 50% of the strain injuries in... Read More

3524 –
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide and is the second most common cause of cancer death in women in the United States. Early detection and new treatments have improved survival rates of breast cancer. Particularly, a number of genes involved in the development and progression of breast cancer have abnormalities in breast cancers. Analysis of these genes for... Read More

3306 –
Huntington’s disease is an inherited progressive form of dementia that affects motility, personality and memory as the disease advances. Huntington’s affects about 30,000 Americans with a prevalence of 1 in every 10,000 people. The prevalence of the disease is between 3-7 per 100,000 in populations of Western European decent. Huntington’s is a genetic disease with an autosomal dominant... Read More

3130 –
Kidney disease is a major health problem in the United States, afflicting about 8 million Americans. Kidney disorders run the gamut from minor infections to total kidney failure. Many diseases that affect the kidney are chronic problems. Although diagnosis and treatment of kidney problems have improved significantly in the past 30 years, however, modern dialysis techniques and organ... Read More

3076 –
Schizophrenia affects ~ 1% of Americans. Diagnosis of schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders currently relies on behavorial symptoms, such as massive disruption of thinking, mood and overall behavior.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have identified markers for neuropsychiatric disorders. In particular, they have studied genetically susceptible regions for... Read More

2930 –
Porous materials are widely used, including in biomedical, industrial and household applications. Specific examples of these materials span from scaffolding for tissue engineering and regeneration, wound dressings, drug release matrices, to insulating or package material, impact absorbers, and membranes and filters. One of the limiting factors of such porous materials is their... Read More

2939 –
Cancer of the oral cavity accounts for approximately 30% of cancers of head and the neck region. When the cancer is treated with surgical intervention, reconstruction of the oral cavity is often required to maintain function and appearance. In these cases, mucosal grafts are used to help with wound closure. One of the clinical limitations for this procedure is the shortage of oral mucosa.... Read More

2905 –
Transcriptional activators play an essential role in the regulatory network that controls gene-specific transcription. The mis-regulation of this complex event cascade is correlated with a growing number of human diseases. Several difficulties have been encountered in the use and analysis of the transcriptional activation systems; for example, overexpression of some transcriptional... Read More

2863 –
Cryptophycins are a novel chemical compounds characterized by their cyclic structure from which their activity is derived. These compounds are isolated from blue-green algae and have been discovered to have potent cytotoxic activity selectively against tumors. In order to explore the possibility of this compound for anti-cancer applications, more efficient synthesis methods for this... Read More

2932 –
Electrified jetting is a process to develop liquid jets having a nanometer-sized diameter, using electro-hydrodynamic forces. With an electric potential on a droplet of conducting liquid, the force balance between electric field and surface tension causes the development of a conical shape and above a critical point, a highly charged liquid jet is ejected from the apex of the cone. Both... Read More

2751 –
Pulmonary surfactant is a mixture of lipids and proteins that lines the surface of the lungs to aid in their physiological functions. Abnormalities in the biochemistry of pulmonary surfactant has been observed in a variety of obstructive lung diseases, as well as in pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP). Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis is extremely rare, and involves resident cells in the... Read More

2753 –
Biomaterials have been widely explored for tissue engineering applications to restore, maintain, or improve tissue function. In particular, biodegradable materials are often used as an initial scaffolding to promote the ingrowth of cells from the surrounding microenvironment and their integration into the implant, with the eventual goal of the biomaterial being replaced by the regenerated... Read More

2555 –
In the United States, colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of all cancer deaths. If the cancer is found and treated early before it spreads to lymph nodes or other organs, the survival rate is higher. However, less than 40% of colon cancers are discovered at an early stage. Colon cancer is diagnosed by fecal occult blood test, digital rectal examination, barium enema, or... Read More

2496 –
One of the challenges in the administration of anticancer therapeutics is the targeted delivery of the therapeutic to the tumor cells in a specific and exclusive manner. As most anticancer agents strongly interfere with replication and other cellular functions, and are often cytotoxic, nonspecific delivery of these agents to noncancerous cells leads to serious toxic side effects. In... Read More

2396 –
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death, second only to heart disease in both men and women. Breast cancer is the most common tumor in women, representing 32% of all new cancer cases and causing 18% of cancer-related deaths of women in the US. One promising avenue for the development of cancer treatments is based on blocking abnormal cell signaling pathways associated with cancers.... Read More

2157 –
RGS proteins represent a novel family of proteins that regulate the activity of G protein and G protein-coupled receptors. There are over twenty members of this protein family, and it continues to grow as new members are discovered. The primary action of RGS proteins is to speed the deactivation of G proteins thus inhibiting G protein signaling. G protein-coupled receptors are involved in... Read More

2150 –
Membranes have been typically used for filtration, reverse osmosis (hyperfiltration), dialysis, pervaporation, and gas separation applications. A solid membrane can be made of synthetic polymers, natural macromolecules, inorganic compounds, ceramic or metallic materials, and are generally fabricated through sintering, stretching, extrusion, phase inversion and etching, or casting. Porous... Read More

2045 –
Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine has created considerable interest in the clinical application of stem cells to both regenerate body tissues and to deliver genetic material. As an example, production of a specific gene-transduced oral mucosal graft that for reconstruction of major oral defects would be an asset to reconstructive surgery and/or gene therapy. Primary human... Read More

1927 –
Sun exposure may result in skin photodamage, primarily due to irradiation by ultraviolet A and B rays (UVA and UVB, respectively). Presently, ranges of UV wavelengths thought to be damaging are considered to be 280-320 nm and 320-360 nm for UVB and UVA, respectively. Compounds or mixtures of compounds that absorb UVA and UVB radiation of these wavelengths are used as sunscreens to prevent... Read More

1891 –
Medical therapy for infection with the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) has improved over the last several years. However, many patients still fail to respond to the available pharmacologic agents, due to drug resistance and other factors. In addition, the antivirals currently available are often not well tolerated by patients. The currently available drugs for treating HIV-1... Read More

1750 –
Adenovirus vectors have become important tools in gene therapy and for the in vivo and ex vivo cell-targeted transfer of heterologous, therapeutic genes to diseased cells or tissues, including the treatment of genetic diseases and cancer. Several properties make adenovirus advantageous gene therapy vectors; they can be produced in high titer stocks, and can infect resting and nondividing... Read More

1622 –
Alginate and other hydrogels are attractive materials for a variety of biomedical applications, including cell transplantation, and drug delivery. In many of these applications one desires to either seed cells into the material, or allow for cellular invasion following implantation into the body. However, alginate is typically used in the physical form of a hydrogel, with small pores (nm... Read More

1597 –
The liver is the only vital organ, aside from the brain, for which there is no pharmacological, mechanical, or extra corporeal means of support for a failing organ. Although a patient’s ability to restore his or her pre-operative hepatic mass following major liver resection is well-known, a significant problem with efforts to promote hepatic regeneration is that many agents have limited... Read More

1550 –
Most cells in the body die through a non-inflammatory, energy-dependent form of cell death called apoptosis. Recent research into the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis has revealed that apoptosis is a genetically programmed process that can become deranged when the components of the cellular apoptotic machinery are mutated or present in inappropriate quantities. Dysregulation of apoptosis... Read More

1532 –
Populations of stem cells that act as precursors for a variety of tissues are now isolatable and expandable in vitro. This capability, along with other advances in cell biology, have together given rise to the new field of tissue engineering. The field’s success in growing two-dimensional cultures of specialized cells has now led to the pivotal challenge of three-dimensional culturing.... Read More

1177 –
Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) was originally described in the late 1800’s as a rare and relatively benign neoplasm of elderly men of Jewish or Mediterranean descent. Today, KS is recognized as the most common malignancy in AIDS patients, affecting approximately 20% of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1)-positive patients (1-3). AIDS-related KS (also known as epidemic KS) is clinically more... Read More

0872 –
The kidney is the organ in vertebrates chiefly responsible for eliminating wastes from the blood and regulating the blood’s chemical balance. The anatomy of the kidney and the architecture of the cells that compose it are related to its function.
The glomerulus is the structure in the kidney that filters blood. The major filtration surface of the glomerulus consists of a basement... Read More

4080 – These dopamine 3 (D3) ligands have therapeutic potential for the treatment of dopamine-related diseases like Parkinson’s, depression, drug addiction, schizophrenia, and restless leg syndrome. The D3 agonists are designed to bind selectively to the D3 receptor subtype to partially or fully modulate the receptor, correcting for an excess or deficiency of dopamine.
Dopamine is a... Read More

3175 – This cell culture or Petri dish coating is a water-soluble, fully synthetic hydrogel that provides a stable environment for the growth and sustenance of healthy human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).
This stem cell growth matrix can be used for long-term growth of human embryonic stem cells while maintaining all of the cells' known normal functions. The cells maintain their normal genetic... Read More